Two things happened to Nashville at once. It became one of the fastest-growing cities in America, and it became the country's bachelorette capital.
Those look unrelated. They produce the same shortage from opposite ends: a lot of people in this city who want to go out and have nobody to go with.
Roavi is not a tour company and you are not a guide. People pay for your time and your company -- dinner, a concert, an afternoon walking somewhere, someone to talk to. That is a real trade with a long history: platforms built on exactly this have operated across the United States for well over a decade.
The bigger half: transplants
Nashville has absorbed an extraordinary number of people -- from California, from the north-east, from everywhere. Healthcare, music, tech, and a lot of remote workers who chose it off a list.
They arrive, they like it, and nine months later they realise they know their colleagues and nobody else. Southern friendliness is real and it is not the same as being invited to anything.
That is most of what gets booked here: dinner in East Nashville, a show at the Ryman or the Basement, a Predators game, somebody to go to the farmers market with on a Sunday.
The smaller half: people who came for the weekend
Visitors do Broadway on Friday night, enjoy it, and by Saturday want to know what the city is actually like. That is a real booking and it pays well because the weekend is short and they are motivated.
What a booking is not
It is not a tour of Music City and it is not a guided anything. It is going somewhere with a person. Most clients here live in Nashville.
The weekend shape
Nashville's demand is more concentrated into Friday and Saturday than almost any city on this list. Weeknights are quieter, weekends are close to full, and a Friday evening block is the standard unit.
That suits people doing this alongside a job -- two evenings a week is a meaningful amount of money here.
Rates
$30-55 an hour, usually as an evening block. You set it and keep all of it.
Starting
Photo, a few sentences that sound like you, your rate. Ten minutes, free.
"Renting a friend" in Nashville
That is the phrase most people type, and it comes from RentAFriend, which has run this exact model in the United States since the late 2000s. Fifteen years of a company being paid to introduce people who want company, without a regulator ever taking an interest -- which is the clearest answer there is to anyone wondering whether this is a real thing to do.
It is the same idea here. The differences are money: RentAFriend charges you a listing fee before anyone has booked you, and Roavi does not charge you anything, take a commission, or touch the payment. We wrote the two up side by side in RentAFriend vs Roavi.
Searched heavily on a Thursday and a Friday, which tells you exactly what it is being asked for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you earn?
$30-55 an hour. Weekends are the trade and they command more than weeknights -- an evening block on a Friday or Saturday is the standard booking.Do I need a licence?
No. Nothing in Tennessee regulates being paid for your company. Paid-companionship platforms have operated across the country for well over a decade for exactly that reason.Who books it?
Transplants, mostly -- Nashville has absorbed an enormous number of people in the last decade. Plus visitors who came for a weekend, did Broadway on the first night, and want to see what the city is actually like on the second.Is it all bachelorette parties?
No, and that is rather the point. The party economy is loud and visible and it is not what most bookings are. Most are somebody who moved here in February and still has not made a friend.